happy 4th birthday adam!

Born July 7th (07/07) Our lucky 7's!

Williamsburg, VA and Washington D.C.

I've had so many people asking me to post this, so here it is!

Ten glorious days spent back East in Williamsburg, Virginia and Washington D.C. - glorious because we saw and learned and did so many wonderful things. Even more glorious because we left Adam at home! (Yes, on purpose.) We will be eternally grateful to Tom and Julie and their family for graciously volunteering to have Adam stay with them so that we could actually enjoy our vacation rather than have it be the nightmare that it would have been had Adam been with us. It's the sad truth. They truly saved our vacation. Thank you, thank you , THANK YOU Tom and Julie!!!!!

We flew into Norfolk, Virginia and had about a one hour drive to the Marriott in Williamsburg. On our way we got, well, lost......somewhere in Virginia. (I'll just say we were having a bit of trouble figuring out our new GPS.) While we were trying to find our way back to the highway, we came across this hole-in-the-wall restaurant called DOUMARS. We were all starving so decided to stop for a BBQ sandwich, which apparently is their specialty. Come to find out, Mr. Doumar was the inventor of the ice cream cone! Who knew?! They still have the first machine that made the cones, and they use it daily to make fresh cones for their customers.

Matthew and Haylie and the first ever ice cream cone maker.

Inside Doumars with our BBQ sandwiches and shakes.

The Marriott at Ford's Colony. This was our building that our condo was in. I loved how everything was colonial style! It is so beautiful there.

Matthew just outside of our condo. The grounds were beautiful with squirrels and bunnies running around everywhere!

COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG....
Our first day in Williamsburg we spent in Colonial Williamsburg, a Colonial town that is full of original (and some reproduction) homes and shops from the 18th century. It was like stepping back in time. It was also like stepping into a furnace! Little did we know that a freak heat wave was to plague the east coast while we were there! I can't even describe it. There are no words, other than just thinking about it makes me want to cry. Right now. It gives a whole new meaning to the word "unbearable". The temp the day we arrived was 107. Add the intense humidity to that and, well, it was simply unbearable. We endured 3 days of just really, really, really hot temps. Everyone kept appologizing to us for it. There were signs out warning people to "stay indoors, drink lots and lots of water". Luckily on our 4th day, it broke. The rest of the trip was in the mid-90's, which after going through what we did, it felt like winter.

Haylie fell in love with these Colonial ladies hats.

I felt so sorry for these guys, having to march through the streets in their long sleeves and tights in that kind of heat. I hope they were getting paid 10 times their norm! It was so fun to listen to them! Things like this really made it fun. We were able to join the march and follow them to the courthouse (where needless to say, I started into heat stroke. Luckily I didn't go all the way down!).

Matthew and Thomas (Jefferson, that is).

There is this maze there in Colonial Williamsburg made of tall hedges. It was Matthew's favorite thing! He liked it because he pretended it was the maze in Harry Potter.

Oh the heat! Taking a break in the shade. We bought these mugs that have unlimited refills of juice and lemonade. We sure took advantage of that! I couldn't even guess how many of these we went through. I don't think we've ever consumed so much apple juice in our lives! They were a life saver. It was amazing how we could drink what seemed like gallons of it in a day, yet we rarely had to go, um, well...... pee (sorry, it's true). We sweat it all out!


Locked up and dying of heat exhaustion.


Colonial Williamsburg has several taverns. We ate dinner at this one - Sheild's Tavern. Can I just say the food was divine?! Totally yummy.


They sat us in the basement of the tavern for dinner. The ambiance was fabulous.

Raegan has this.....thing where she makes creations out of left-over food.

Her creation with our leftover tavern food. A snowman with chicken bones for arms? Oh kids! Sigh.....

In Colonial Williamsburg is the church that Thomas Jefferson attended. We went to a concert there one of the nights. In the gardens of the church is a graveyard with many very old graves. This one in particular I thought was so touching.

"Here sleeps in Jesus united to Him

by faith and the graces of a christian life,

all that was mortal of Mrs. Ann Burges

once the tender and affectionate wife

of the Rev Henry John Burges

of the Isle of Wight. She died 25th

December 1771 in giving birth to an

infant daughter who rests in her arms.

She here waits for the transporting moment

when the trump of God shall call her

forth to glory, honour, and immortality.

Oh death where is thy sting?

Oh grave where is thy victory?"

JAMESTOWN SETTLEMENT....

These are the photos that make me want to cry. I have never in my life felt heat like the day we were at Jamestown Settlement. Normally they have many volunteers and employees working outside dressed in period clothing doing demonstrations and such. Not this day! There were only a few out. Two men on the boats (both of whom I thought were going to die right in front of us!), a musketeer and a woman weaving. It was just too miserable and dangerous to be outside. (Oh ya, this is the day that I had the melted chocolate disaster inside my purse. Not to be confused with the TWO mugs of apple juice that dumped out entirely in my purse - that was a different day.)

With the musketeer.

Do these pictures even give you an idea of the sweltering conditions?! Here is John with the sweat just dripping off of him.

And poor Matthew!

The kids in armor - each about to slip into a heat coma (Haylie was already there!).

The art of glass blowing. This was so cool! Let's just say I made a pretty nice dent in John's wallet at the gift shop here. Love my hand blown glass!!

MT. VERNON....

This tree was AMAZING! It is a pecan tree which stands right next to the two-story Mansion at Mt. Vernon.

George and Martha Washington's tombs (George on the right).

BERKELEY PLANTATION....

Berkeley Plantation, (on the James River) was the estate home of Benjamin Harrison - a signer of The Declaration of Independence. His son William Henry was the 9th President of the United States, and his grandson Benjamin was the 23rd President. Berkeley was also the sight of the FIRST THANKSGIVING!

Raegan in front of the house. The plantation was like stepping into Pride and Predjudice!

The James River.

GETTYSBURG....

John desperately wanted to go to Gettysburg. I was a little uninterested, to say the least. Boy, am I glad he talked me into it! What an amazing experience! It was so much more than I expected. The new museum is top notch - one of the best I've been to, and the battle fields.....what an experience to be there and feel that feeling of standing on hallowed ground.

The kids on a cannon used at the battle of Gettysburg.



Looking down the barrel of one of the cannons.

Little Round Top was one of the pivitol areas where the Union defended the Confederacy. Many, many men died at this sight.

Brooke and me at the top of Little Round top looking into the battle fields. It really was surreal to stand there knowing what had taken place there. You could picture in your mind the battle and the many casualties lying all around on this hill and in these fields.

Well, tragedy has hit. This is the ONLY picture that I have found from our time in Washington D.C.! Where are they?! All my photos of the capitol, The White House, the monuments and memorials, Arlington, the temple?! I am losing sleep over this one. I won't give up until I've searched every file on my computer. They have to be somewhere! I'll post them if.....NO, I mean when, I find them.

I looked out the window and what did I see?.....Adam on his way to the neighbor's house to see if he could borrow a Thomas the Tank Engine train. (Unfortunately, he came home empty handed. "No, you can't borrow our train, Adam, because you don't clean up your messes when you play at our house!")

(I really do have more children other than Adam, but no one else is quite as entertaining as he is, thus many of my posts are about him! ie: Ya gotta love the Spiderman moon boots with the footed jammies!
Hmmm......perhaps I should change the name of my blog to "Life With Adam", because that's basically my life!)

the latest chapter in the book of "Adam"

I am the Primary President in our ward. Yesterday my music leader brought over several pieces of music for me to look at for the Primary kids to sing in Sacrament Meeting on Father's Day. I gave them a brief look before I set them down on a chair in the living room, thinking, "I'll get to those as soon as I'm done cleaning the bathroom." About 15 minutes later, I was still cleaning while I was talking to my brother on the phone, when suddenly I heard the PAPER SHREDDER being used in the next room. I dashed in and found Adam shredding the last piece of music! The other sheets of music were already neatly dumped into billions of little peices in the bottom of the shredder. (Sorry Layne , I hope my 168-decibel scream in your ear didn't do any long-term damage to your hearing.)

I don't know......I'm thinking if I try really hard, and spend an hour (maybe two), then I could maybe put it all back together. Anyone got any tape?

happy birthday....

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, I'm so DEPRESSED that David Archuleta didn't win, happy birthday to you."

boo hoo, sniffle, sniffle :(

Yip, that was pretty much what we were singing last night at Raegan and Haylie's birthday/American Idol finale party last night. I'm still in denial. When Ryan Secrest said that the winner is "David.......COOK", I couldn't figure out what was happening. I thought, "David WHO? Who is Cook? Where did this 'Cook' name come from?!" I just couldn't wrap my brain around what he had just said. I cried. (Okay, I cried only on the inside - there were way, WAY too many people in the room for me to make a fool of myself by crying out loud. Come on! I'm a forty-year-old woman for goodness sake. Get a grip lady!)

The Davids, moments before the......(sigh)....announcement.

This was as Ryan Secrest was saying "David......." Look at the faces on these kids. The suspense was truly intense. They were all about to pass out, if I didn't pass out first.

Waiting. Waiting. Waiting...

The winner is announced. Pure and utter devastation!

Okay FINE! The night was not a total loss. We still had the birthday party portion to look forward to. It's a good thing we had the birthday to get our minds off of the previous "Archu-let-down".

Raegan and Haylie are so lucky! They share the same birthday, May 21st (actually lucky for mom - ONE cake, ONE party - yee haw!).

Haylie cutting the luscious homemade lemon-buttermilk cake!

Raegan and her new Anthropologie top. I think when Raegan blew out her birthday candles she wished for a million dollars so that she could go on a shopping spree at Anthroplogie - she's a bit obsessed with that place! (There's nothing wrong with dreaming, honey!)

HAPPY 17TH BIRTHDAY RAEGAN!!

HAPPY 13TH BIRTHDAY HAYLIE!!

(It just hit me - I have 3, THREE, teenagers now! Help?)

the battle of the Davids

Okay, I have NEVER watched American Idol before this season, and I must say that now I am completely addicted! It has been soooo much fun to watch our "local boy" David Archuleta. We are HUGE fans of his now!

Last Friday, I took Haylie and Brooke to see David at Murray High School. We were so lucky to get in - the place was packed. It was a huge day here. They named it "David Archuleta Day".

This is the stage where he performed. We had great seats, until the wind blew that dang balloon rainbow until it was almost horizontal, which completely blocked us from seeing his face (his shoes looked great though!). We all chanted "Move the balloons, move the balloons". They finally caved in to us and cut them and let them fly away.

The CROWDS!

This is the hospital across the street from the high school.

Workers had come out on the roof to watch the action!

Ya, you'll probably have to click on this photo to see its glory.

The limo that David arrived in - it was some honkin' huge beast.

You can only see about half of it here. He was surrounded by police and sirens as he drove in to the parking lot.

This is the mayor of Murray presenting David with....stuff.

I sure hope this guy's "handlebar mustache" doesn't cost David any votes! That was a bit wierd. I wanted to yell out, "Watch out David, that thing might poke you in the eye!" Yikes.

And I thought David sounded good on t.v. He's even better in person!

What a beautiful voice.

(The bald guy behind him is his personal bodyguard.)

I love this picture because of the story behind it. Haylie and I had walked to the side of the stage. The camera guy was filming David and he was talking to the camera. Then we yelled out, "Hey David!", and he turned and looked at us with this shy "are-you-talking-to-me?" look. Then he smiled and laughed at us. Fun times!

GO DAVID A.!!